


Inner Demons

by unknown_knowns



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Alternate Universe - uhhhh everything is different idk, Angst, Blood Magic, Demons, Depression, F/F, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Mental Health Issues, No underage drinking technically, Supernatural Elements, Witchcraft, Witches, halloween party, help me, probably, save me from myself, starts off pretty sad but gets better, this was supposed to be a one shot but I kept writing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 12:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12581928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknown_knowns/pseuds/unknown_knowns
Summary: Chloe's girlfriend is gone.It's her fault.A fateful night makes her question both of those things.And get insulted by a cat.It's a pretty weird night.





	Inner Demons

Max and Chloe were sitting on a bench outside Blackwell.

Cool Autumn breeze.

Little cares.

Max had just finished walking around campus on her weekly quest to get new interesting shots of the squirrels.

Chloe and her were going through the photos to see which ones they were going to keep.

Chloe wasn’t an amazing photographer by any means, but her dad encouraged it out of her, and she could at least tell a bad shot from a good one.

Max pulled another photo from the pile and the two of them looked at it.

She thoughtlessly placed her head on Chloe’s shoulder.

“I don’t like this one.”

Chloe hummed thoughtfully.

“Yeah, garbage. Squirrel’s too far away.”

Max nodded barely, and moved the photo to the reject pile.

Another photo.

“Hm … focus is a little off, but …”

Chloe blinked.

“I really like the way the branches strike across the background of the frame like that.”

Max nodded slightly.

“And the little nut the squirrel has is in good focus, right in the center.”

Chloe nodded herself.

“Keep it.”

“Yeah.”

Max placed the photo into the keep pile, and turned her face around to place a gentle little kiss on Chloe’s neck.

One of her hands went down the side of her arm, until Max intertwined one of her hands with one of Chloe’s.

“I’m kinda hot.”

Chloe scoffed, and got a playful grin.

“I’d say so.”

Max rolled her eyes, but giggled gently, and shook her head.

“No, like … temperature wise.”

Chloe blinked.

It wasn’t exactly warm outside right now.

“Um … you sure, Max?”

Max sighed and pulled away to inexplicably take off her jacket.

She had only a t-shirt on underneath.

“Yeah. That’s better.”

She placed the jacket on her lap while Chloe pulled another photo for them to go over.

Max nestled back into her side.

“I like the contrast here.”

Max sighed a bit at Chloe’s words.

“Chloe, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Chloe made a thoughtful sound, but automatically moved the picture to the keep pile without any further input from Max and pulled the next photo off the stack.

“I ---”

“--- Chloe.”

Max sounded a little concerned, now. She raised her hand to grasp at Chloe’s as it got another photo to keep it from doing as such.

Chloe blinked.

“Uh. What is it, Max?”

Little concerning, but, whatever.

It was probably nothing.

“I need you to stop blaming yourself.”

Chloe blinked.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

She breathed in deep, slow, and let it out with a painfully harsh exhale.

“Max … I don’t … I …”

Max’s grip on her hand tightened.

“I need you to stop blaming yourself.”

Chloe sniffled.

“I can’t … Max …”

The grip tightened still. It was painful now.

“I need you to stop blaming yourself.”

Max’s nails dug in. Chloe’s hand was bleeding now from the grip, but for some reason, she didn’t feel any pain.

“Max …”

Max suddenly pulled away to forcefully shove Chloe off of the bench and onto the grass behind them.

Chloe didn’t resist. She had no energy to resist with, anyway.

She just looked at the sky. Blue. Peaceful.

Then Max getting up to stand over her.

Her face was gone. Totally gone, no features to her face whatsoever, just ---

Chloe couldn’t look at it.

“Chloe. I’m so hot.”

The sky turned dark. Chloe could see embers and smoke rising in the distance.

“I know … Max …”

Chloe looked back to Max, and gasped when she saw her on fire.

The nothingness of her face had been totally replaced by a silent flame.

“Help me, Chloe.”

Chloe closed her eyes tightly.

She still didn’t have any energy.

“I can’t … Max …”

Thud.

Max was on top of her, and her hands were tightly gripping Chloe’s cheeks.

Her hands were so hot.

It felt like it was burning Chloe’s skin – the only sensation she could feel anymore.

“Help me, Chloe!”

Max finally shouted this, sounding properly desperate.

Chloe didn’t open her eyes.

She just felt her body burn alive under the living sun that was Max.

 

\---

 

Chloe woke up with a horrid, shuttering gasp.

Jesus.

For a second or two, her eyes nervously darted around the room, like ---

No. Of course not.

Sigh.

She was in Max’s room.

Well, their room, at Blackwell.

It was about a week ago since Max … stopped living here, and Chloe never slept well since.

But the room was still comforting, even if the darkness and the scare from her nightmare put a weird, unnerving spin to every corner and every shape in the room.

Chloe tightly closed her eyes and slowly willed herself up into a sitting position, with her legs resting off the edge of the bed.

She sat there miserably for a few seconds until she calmed her breathing down enough.

Fuck.

That was the most vivid one, so far.

She could almost feel the fires still … see Max’s face burning.

No.

Bad thoughts.

Chloe violently shook her head, as though it would physically eject the thought from her head, and stood up with a vicious groan.

She opened her eyes, took Max’s old jacket off of her computer chair, put it on, and went to the shared girl’s bathroom to get some water on her face.

The water felt nice on her face.

Refreshing.

Her face was too warm, right now, and her body still felt all jittery and excitable from that damn nightmare.

She absent-mindedly start to comb her hair with her fingers now that she was looking at her face in the mirror and didn’t like what she was seeing.

She always loved her long, blonde hair, but it kept getting darker as she got older, which was annoying.

She felt more like a brunette these days. Whatever.

She was going right back to bed anyway.

 

The next morning, she woke up to someone knocking at her door.

Chloe sighed wearily and got up from her bed.

She didn’t really think to change out of her lazy oversized tee shirt jacket combo, but whatever.

It was still pretty early.

Most of the girls on the floor probably wouldn’t be dressed, either.

She walked over to the door and opened it.

Her face lit up slightly at the sight of the leader of the Vortex Club here, Taylor.

She was fully and immaculately dressed, in the many layers of expensive clothing and nice jewelry she usually wore.

She looked nice.

She smiled pleasantly.

“Hey … Chloe …”

And she sounded so gentle and soft these days.

Everyone fucking talked to her like this and it was whatever.

Kind of nice, she guessed.

Chloe didn’t say anything though, just looking absently at Taylor.

Taylor bit her lip after a few seconds, and looked past Chloe into the room.

It was a total mess, of course.

Taylor sighed, and looked back to Chloe.

“So … there’s a party tomorrow.”

Chloe shrugged.

Taylor’s eyes darted down the hall sidelong for a second or two before she took a step closer to Chloe and carefully placed a hand on her cheek.

Chloe thought about objecting, but she didn’t feel much from the gentle affection.

Just numb.

So whatever, if this made her happy, let the girl have her kinks.

“It’d really mean a lot to us if you came. It’s a costume party, okay? Out in the forest. It’ll be fun.”

Chloe shrugged again.

Taylor sighed and carefully crossed her arms, looking down to the floor for a few seconds.

Quiet.

“Would Max want you to be like this?”

Chloe shrugged again, but at least this got some words out of her.

She didn’t have to think long on them.

“No.”

Fuck, her voice sounded weird.

Kind of dry and damaged, like she hadn’t used it in a year.

… It’d probably been a while, thinking about it some.

Whatever.

Taylor nodded gently, and looked back up to Chloe.

“Of course she wouldn’t. So … please? Come to the thing? Look, I’ll pick out a costume for you and everything. What’s your size?”

Chloe blinked.

“Same as Max’s.”

Taylor tried to smile, but it was just too much and the smile cracked painfully.

She looked away, down the hallway again.

“Um. Okay. Will you be there?”

Chloe shrugged.

“I guess. See if it’s my speed.”

Taylor made an excited giggling sound and immediately closed the distance between them to tightly hug Chloe.

Chloe for her part just awkwardly raised her hands up on either side of Taylor’s body, not quite knowing how to process the sudden burst of affection.

“Thanks. I promise you won’t regret it.”

Chloe wasn’t so sure about that.

Taylor was all smiles as she pulled away from the hug and went into her room - the one opposite Chloe’s and Max’s.

Whatever.

The Vortex Club wasn’t so bad, she figured.

Knew how to throw some nice parties.

Prescott money got to be good for _something_ , she figured.

Whatever.

She’d just drink some beer and bail in a little bit, probably.

Chill in the corner somewhere.

Say she went even though she didn’t really do anything.

She just wanted peace and quiet these days and everyone was just so …

Concerned.

Chloe shook her head, now a few seconds since Taylor had gone back into room, and went back into her own room.

When the door closed, she tried to put the whole ordeal out of her mind and collapsed back down onto her bed.

She closed her eyes, and prayed for no more nightmares.

She needed the rest.

 

Max still visited her

but only in her dreams

to make them

unpleasant

 

some sort of

cosmically cruel

irony

 

whatever

not like anything mattered anymore

sleep was just

one more thing

to add to the list

 

The next day, or afternoon, or whatever, someone was knocking on her door again.

Chloe groaned painfully, and considered not answering the door this time.

Her room was a kind of golden yellow, which mean it must either sunrise or sunset, and she honestly couldn’t tell which.

Whatever.

She got up again, walked over to her door, and carefully opened it again.

Taylor, again.

Smiling, again.

Speaking gently, again.

She said some words, again, but Chloe was only paying the barest amount of attention, again.

Nothing really registered until she pushed this costume she had in her hands into Chloe’s chest.

“Change. And … um, probably shower before then. We’ll be outside, okay? Text me.”

Chloe looked down to the costume.

“Right …”

Taylor smiled pleasantly, again, and turned around to back into her room, probably to change into her own costume.

Whatever.

When _was_ the last time she showered?

Probably too long.

Chloe walked back into her room, moved some clutter off of her couch, and placed the costume down there.

She went to her closet and …

Ugh.

No.

She decided she didn’t need anything from in here, suddenly, and she could just bum some supplies off of someone else.

That’d be easier.

 

She got some bathing supplies from Taylor, who was all but too happy to give her some, and went to shower.

It felt like she spent too long just staring at the drain while the hot water melted her body.

At some point she went through the motions of washing herself properly, and brought the supplies back to Taylor.

She then returned to her room, changed into the costume, and … ugh.

Of course Taylor would pick out some kind of sexy costume.

A sexy witch, no less, goddamn.

Could you get any more cliché?

Complete with a too-short skirt and a too-revealing top.

She needed boobs at least two cup sizes bigger to make this work.

It just looked like someone strapped some black cloth onto a tube of toothpaste.

Ugh.

Whatever.

She took her stupid pointy hat and put it on, and almost left her room, but … shoes.

She had no shoes to go with this.

Taylor didn’t give her any.

That was probably a good thing – she’d probably give her some ridiculous 20 inch heels or something too girly.

Chloe put on some chucks instead, since chucks went with everything.

Not like it was a fashion show, anyway.

Chloe texted Taylor to let her know she was on her way and left Max’s room.

Their room.

Her room.

 

She walked out of the dorm and into the fresh, chilly air outside.

Fucking.

Cold.

Revealing outfit.

Goddamn it, Taylor.

It was going to get even worse when the sun fully set.

Chloe begrudgingly went _all_ of the way _back_ to Max’s --- her --- room, and got her old jacket, and then went _all_ of the way _back_ outside.

It probably didn’t match, but whatever. Taylor should have fucking guessed she would get cold in this.

Her phone vibrated, and she checked it.

Message from Taylor.

_ok remember, forest by the school get ready to party you’re tits off!_

Chloe rolled her eyes.

_your_

And put her phone away, starting to make her way to where Taylor said the stupid thing would be.

Hey, look, she was going to a Halloween party, in a costume, and everything.

She was going to be around people.

And do things.

Party.

Drink.

Fun.

This is what it meant to cope with things, right?

That’s what her fucking therapist said.

Whatever.

 

Her shoes crunched leaves carelessly.

Getting dark now.

Chloe didn’t need directions more specific than what she got; there was only one place they could really be holding the party.

A clearing not too far into the forest, with a path clearly marked by discarded beer bottles and other very clearly man-made junk.

Kind of a shame no one cleaned this shit up.

It was kind of beautiful out here, other than that.

Really quiet, peaceful.

Maybe this would be a good place to go to retreat from everything, sometimes.

There’s a thought.

Chloe, the peaceful hippy.

Fuck this week had been so hard on her.

She felt like a totally different person, now.

Whatever.

She started to hear voices and see more lights as she got closer to the clearing, so that’s obviously where they were.

She paused just shy of the clearing, since Taylor and Nathan were right in front of the path.

Taylor was dressed as an angel, and Nathan as a demon.

Probably checking if you were allowed in, or something.

Taylor giggled and beckoned Chloe forward.

Nathan had a small but contained frown.

Chloe walked up to the two of them anyway.

“Chlooooooe! I’m so glad you came. You look beautiful in that costume.”

Nathan grumbled.

“No makeup.”

She spared him only a few seconds of a look, like, really dude – but –

She looked back to Taylor and smiled just barely.

“I guess. So … I’m allowed in, right?”

Taylor nodded pleasantly and gestured into the clearing behind her.

“Of course, Chloe. You’re always welcome.”

Perhaps a bit of a stupid question.

Max was a good member of the club herself, and had attended who knows how many of these parties.

“You should have a beer. It’ll help you relax.”

Chloe just walked past Taylor thoughtlessly into the clearing proper.

“Max never wanted me drinking.”

Taylor flinched.

Nathan sighed.

Whatever.

Chloe sat herself down on some tree stump and looked at what was going on around.

Big ‘ol bonfire in the middle with a bunch of people around it, drinking and talking boisterously.

They all had costumes much more colorful than Chloe’s – what with her black costume, gray jacket, and white chucks. She’d almost have to try to be more devoid of it.

Occasionally, someone would look over to Chloe, and they would smile, like people always did, and wave, like they always did, and Chloe would politely wave back, like she always did, and try to smile in response, like she always did.

But it was all so fake.

Just easier to play along then have people get on her case for being moody.

Whatever.

A few minutes later, Taylor approached Chloe and sat down with two beers.

She smiled so warmly and offered one of the beer bottles.

“C’mon. Just one. It’ll make you feel better.”

Chloe grumbled.

“I don’t want to.”

Taylor hesitated, for a few seconds.

She spoke more gently afterwards, and her smile was gone.

“It’ll … help you to forget, too. Things become numb, instead of hurt.”

Chloe sighed.

“I don’t want to forget.”

Memories of Max were the only thing that kept Chloe alive.

Even if her asshole brain twisted them into these warped fucking nightmares whenever she tried to recall them.

Taylor sighed wearily.

“No one blames you for it, Chloe. You did what you could.”

Chloe looked sidelong to Taylor.

“Yeah. Well. I do. That’s all that matters, isn’t it?”

Taylor bit her lip, a bit too tightly, and gently placed one of the beer bottles down next to Chloe.

She patted herself down until she pulled a bottle opener from seemingly nowhere and clicked it open.

“You’ll end up dead if you keep beating yourself up like this. Just try and relax. You can go one night without thinking about everything.”

Chloe frowned, but looked to the beer bottle.

Would drinking this make Taylor shut up and go away?

It kind of felt like it.

Whatever.

She took the bottle, took a sip, and ugh.

It tasted awful, and her face grimaced awfully in response to the flavor.

She almost coughed, but it wasn’t _that_ unpalatable.

Taylor giggled, and gently patted at Chloe’s back.

“That’s the spirit.”

She looked back to Nathan, near the entrance.

“Hey, I gotta go back to my duties. Maybe hang around the fire a bit? Just enjoy the night.”

Chloe looked at her plainly.

“Right.”

Taylor took her own beer bottle and left Chloe to return to standing by Nathan.

Finally.

Chloe took another sip – this one tasted much less awful, but, still.

She coldly calculated if she finished this off no one would encourage her to drink much more.

So she made steady progress on killing the bottle, until it was empty.

She closed her eyes.

 

Chloe opened her eyes sometime later.

Ugh.

She looked up and –

Woah.

The fire in the bonfire was totally frozen in place, embers, ashes, smoke, everything.

Everyone around it was totally frozen, too, unmoving and unblinking in their stillness.

Chloe blinked, and then viciously shook her head.

That didn’t help, though – everything was still just so frozen.

That’s …

This can’t be a joke, right? Like there’s no way to physically prevent fires from movement, even if the others were playing a prank on her.

What the hell.

Chloe carefully stood up from her stump and looked around.

Taylor and Nathan were still by the entrance.

Frozen in place, of course.

Chloe walked over to them, then in front of them.

“Uhhhh … Taylor? What’s going on?”

Chloe almost didn’t expect a response just from the weirdness of her situation.

She walked around to Taylor’s front, and waved one of her hands in front of her.

Taylor’s eyes didn’t track her, or anything.

Chloe flicked her nose.

Nothing.

Chloe let out a shaky exhale and pulled away from her, locking her hands behind her head and just trying to not freak out.

What the fuck.

She kicked at some leaves at her shoes because what else do you use leaves for anyway, and a few seconds after trying to calm herself down later, she looked over to Nathan.

“The makeup was for Max, not you, dickweed.”

No response, but whatever.

It felt good to say that, even if he probably didn’t hear shit.

Maybe she’d just have to repeat it when he _could_ hear it.

Whatever.

Chloe looked around again.

Maybe there was something she could do to fix this.

Or maybe she was officially starting to go insane now, and this was some sort of absurd hallucination.

But she didn’t see anything, at first.

Just … a forest.

A clearing in a forest.

With some drunk frozen idiots around a drunk frozen bonfire.

Fuck.

Fuck this was weird.

Chloe slowly made her way back to the stump she’d been sitting on earlier, sat back down on it, and slumped over a little bit.

What the fuck.

This was something else.

Was this another nightmare?

That didn’t seem right.

Those were never lucid like this.

Her nightmares never felt weird in the moment …

This certainly did.

This felt unreal.

Probably because it was, ugh.

Can depression make you hallucinate?

Or the beer?

No, that was silly. She just had only one, and all that was doing is making her a bit fuzzy.

This was something else.

But what?

Fucking what can just freeze time like this?

Chloe made a frustrated groan, sat upright, and slapped at her own thigh as some kind of release.

Fuck.

Chloe looked forward without really seeing anything for another few moments before she noticed a deer was staring at her.

Max’s favorite kind of animal.

The little reminder of her made her smile barely, and it felt weird to smile, so she stopped.

The deer blinked.

Chloe blinked.

Wait.

What?

The deer’s ear flicked.

That deer is fucking moving.

What the hell.

Chloe briefly looked around to see if –

Yeah.

The deer was the only thing moving.

Well, fuck.

It had to be related to all of this somehow, right?

Deer can’t just control time …

Fuck it.

What else is she going to do?

Sit around and be miserable?

Ugh, probably. Did she do anything else these days?

Chloe stared at the deer and did nothing.

It just continued to stare back, blink, and occasionally flick one of its ears.

After a few more moments, Chloe realized the deer was ever-so-slightly translucent.

It was pretty hard to see from the distance, but she was certain.

Double what the hell.

She kept staring and –

The deer’s eyes caught on fire.

Chloe blinked.

What the fuck.

“Max.”

She said it without thinking and immediately got up from her stool to quickly walk towards the damn fire ghost dear thing.

The deer turned its head and started to walk away – but the fire from its eyes were providing a light that made it easy to see where it was going.

Fuck, Chloe had to chase after this damn thing.

Don’t deer usually just run when spooked?

Whatever, it’s obviously not a real deer …

Fuck this is trippy.

Chloe started a slow jog after it so she didn’t lose it.

It kept leading her deeper and deeper into the forest, though, and Chloe knew she would eventually get lost at this rate.

It wasn’t like she was thinking and leaving some kind of trail for her to follow back.

This was just her impulse telling her to do something, again.

It’d been a while since she felt the need to do something impulsively.

It kinda felt nice.

And getting lost was whatever. She had her phone. It had GPS. She’d make her way back out whatever.

Not like every day you get an opportunity to chase after a fire ghost deer while time’s all frozen and shit.

Seems like a once-in-a-life-time kind of deal.

As they continued to travel, more and more of the deer caught fire, and it reminded Chloe entirely too much of her nightmares with Max.

This fire didn’t burn her, though, it just provided light and consumed more and more of the deer’s shame in dancing flames.

More walking.

More walking.

More walking.

By now, the deer was completely consumed in flames, and Chloe couldn’t see its shape at all anymore. Just a bunch of fire.

The fire didn’t seem to be burning it, though, just obscuring it.

Can ghosts even be burned?

Seemed like a pretty obvious no.

Well, this was ghost fire. Ghost fire probably worked on different rules –

Stop, what the fuck. This is so weird.

The deer stopped at the entrance to a cave, and then the fires that had been enveloping it finally started to whittle down its shape until it disappeared.

Chloe just watched it shrink thoughtlessly.

She probably should have been freaking out more, but she just kept thinking of Max when she looked at it, and that kept her from fully freaking out at the surreal nature of this whole situation.

When the ghost deer was totally gone, so was the light its fire provided.

It was thoroughly night now, so that was inconvenient.

Chloe pulled out her phone and used it as a light source while she examined the cave this deer obviously led her to.

“You want me to go in that, Max? Just like old times, right? An adventure? Fuck.”

Obviously, that wasn’t Max, but …

Chloe got a little excited at the idea of exploring a cave that some fucking fire deer ghost led her to.

Must be some even crazier shit in here.

If this was all hallucinations and she was insane now, whatever, no point in fighting it.

She examined the cave a little bit.

It was just bursting from the floor, a little bit of circular uncaring stone. It looked like it was a tunnel leading down into the ground. The entrance was just barely large enough for Chloe to squeeze through – she hoped the whole tunnel wasn’t that skinny, or this was gonna suck.

On the whole, it wasn’t too noticeable. Between all of the leaves over it and the trees around it, it was easily just mistaken for some boulder or something, not an entrance to somewhere.

Chloe took some steps into the cave. Carefully. She had to turn on her side and kinda shimmy with a little skip for a few seconds until the tunnel widened enough for her to walk normally.

Not that it was surprising, but it was dark as hell in here, and a different kind of quiet.

The forest was relaxing from its distance from humanity and its unnatural noises.

The cave was a little unnerving. The distance didn’t feel relaxing, it felt isolating.

She heard some water dripping deeper into the tunnel. Every step of her shoes resonated and echoed in weird ways along the tunnel.

Chloe felt like someone was watching her.

She shivered a little – not from being cold, though she was kind of – and kept soldiering on.

There must be something to see in here.

Max – or whatever that was – wouldn’t lead her all of the way out here just to be creeped out.

Chloe walked.

Walked.

Walked some more.

The tunnel was definitely at an incline going downwards, and she must be pretty deep underground by now.

Hopefully her phone’s battery wouldn’t crap on her or something. But she charged it right before she left, so she should be pretty good.

The feeling of dread just got worse the more she walked. Eventually, Chloe crossed her arms and rubbed at her shoulder defensively, while keeping the phone lamely pointed to her front for some light.

Caves didn’t normally weird her out.

Her and Max used to love exploring random stuff like this all of the time.

Before school started eating up most of Max’s free time, anyway.

But it was ok, Chloe had school work to do, too.

They used to spend basically every waking moment together, so it wasn’t like she was missing any quality time just because they didn’t do exactly the same shit they used to when they were kids.

They were just growing up.

Different responsibilities to take care of.

When the tunnel widened into a circular room, Chloe frowned and uncrossed her arms.

She saw some stalagmites and stalactites. Which was which, again?

In the center of the room was a wide, beautifully clear pool of water.

It was breath-taking.

“Jesus.”

There was even some light coming from it, illuminating the rest of the cave, so Chloe could put her phone away.

Chloe was drawn to it for no other reason than its simple natural beauty.

The water shimmed the closer she got to it, and seemed to go down endlessly.

Chloe smiled, before she could help it.

This feeling of discovering weird natural wonders like this is what she missed most about not doing it as often.

But …

What the hell was she doing here?

Ugh.

Chloe pulled her hands out of her jeans and interlocked them behind her head, and kicked at the rocky surface underneath her shoes.

This is a neat scene and all, but this can’t be why she was led here by a goddamn fire ghost deer?

Like, she was expecting something even trippier and more surreal.

Maybe Max just wanted her to get out and do something.

Hell of a lot of effort for that, though … freezing time and all.

“Fire ghost deer leads me to a tiny cave and all that’s here is some fucking water. Good job following it, idiot.”

Chloe’s voice was more playful than seriously hurtful towards herself, but she did feel kind of silly for following it now.

Well.

Probably about time to head back and see if the weird time shit was over.

Nice cave, though.

She’d have to –

A cat suddenly appeared from behind one of the stalagmites or stalactites or whichever was the fucking one that was on the floor and –

It walked right up to her.

A simple black cat, but with piercing green eyes.

The fact that there was a fucking cat in this deep of a cave was surreal enough to get Chloe to freeze and just stare as it as it walked closer … closer … closer.

It stopped about a foot away, and looked right up at Chloe.

Chloe blinked.

Cats don’t normally do that, right?

“Um … hey, kitty-kitty.”

A cat being here was hardly the weirdest thing of Chloe’s night, but it was still a little unsettling.

The cat shook its head.

Chloe blinked.

Um.

Did that cat just dismiss her talking to it?

“You better have a good reason for why a fucking spirit led you to my cave.”

Um.

Did that cat just fucking talk?

Chloe blinked.

And blinked.

And blinked again.

The cat fucking _sighed_ and shook its head again.

“Pretty, ... but stupid. Ugh. Yes, I'm a cat. Does that concept  _confuse_ you, poor girl? Just ... hold on.”

That cat just fucking insulted her.

This might be the weirdest part of her night, and a fucking fire ghost deer just led her to a cave after pausing time.

Chloe just kind of dumbly watched with a gaping mouth as the cat stood up, turned completely black, and then started to grow into the shape of a human.

Slightly shorter than Chloe.

Jesus.

What the fuck.

The shape shook its head, and the blackness started to fade to skin tones and reveal a human underneath.

Or at least the body of a human.

Obviously no human can just turn into a fucking cat.

The woman – it was a woman’s shape, Chloe recognized a bit too quickly, instantly recognizing her small boobs – with short blonde hair, very clear skin, the same piercing green eyes.

She had on a simple black dress, but the dress had a small collar, and all along its top it was covered in endless shiny black feathers. No boob window, damn. Her dress was frayed at the bottom, and she didn’t wear any shoes, but somehow still had her all nails painted immaculately to a too-chipper pink.

She was cute, though Chloe had the constant feeling that her mere presence was like a mortal offense to this woman.

The woman crossed her arms, and looked indignant, but then again, this was the same woman that could look dismissive as a fucking cat, so, whatever.

“Now. Can you answer my question or do I have to speak more slowly so your dumbass can understand?”

Chloe looked around, sighed, and looked back to the woman.

The insult didn't even register; the woman didn't sound too viciously offended. Just kind of annoyed.

She probably should have been more shocked or horrified at the whole thing, but after the fire deer, this seemed pretty tolerable.

And at least this woman might have some kind of chance of knowing what the fuck was going on.

Well.

Here goes fucking nothing.

This night just kept getting weirder and weirder.

“I um … think my dead girlfriend led me here. I guess to talk to you.”

The woman frowned.

Chloe gulped.

 


End file.
